The most recent hacks seem to have been aimed at powerful individuals and collecting data that could benefit the Chinese government.
Among others, they targeted the phones of President-elect Donald Trump, Vice-President-elect JD Vance, and people working for Vice-President Kamala Harris’s campaign.
The hackers have also accessed a database of phone numbers subject to law enforcement wiretaps – knowledge that experts say could be used to discover which foreign spies are under surveillance.
And millions of Americans may have had their data breached by the attacks on telecoms companies.
Richard Forno, assistant director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Cybersecurity Institute, said the Chinese efforts were being directed at a variety of targets.
“It’s more generic information gathering, let’s see what we can get into, and see what we can find,” he said.